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2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Let us know if you need any "pre-sales" to help fund publishing it.

 

54 minutes ago, jlpservicesinc said:

Good point Thomas.  I would certainly do a pre-sales payment. 

Thanks for the offers but I do not know costs yet.  I will be able to fund it.  

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  • 1 month later...

I have a 1904 140# Fisher anvil. There are some areas I would like to repair by welding or what ever process is recommended. I have a full machine shop. The top plate has some small chunks missing and the underside of the horn has some good size voids in it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Karl

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Any photos? Most old anvils have bits missing on the edges of the face. Welding them will only achieve a cosmetic result and the repair will most likely come off with a bigger chunk with use unless done with pre heat, the right rod and other details. Usually it is best to let it be. As for the underside of the horn ...  why would you bother? 

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Welcome aboard Karl, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many members live within visiting distance.

Can you post some pictures of your anvil? We generally SHOUT NO!!! to anyone wanting to "repair or restore" an anvil and having a full machine shop at your disposal makes us shout even louder. 

How long have you been using this anvil and have the missing "small chunks(?)" interfered to the point of making it almost unusable? Chips out of the edges of the face plate are common and rarely bad enough to require repair. As are dings in the face itself. for the most part they're easy to work around and if a person needs a pristine surface or crisp edges welding a square shank to a piece of steel for a bottom tool does the job. 

Unless the voids under the horn are significant threats to it's strength they're just cosmetic and not worth the risk to the anvil or running weld beads. Cast iron doesn't weld like steel. 

ANY time you strike an arc on hardened high carbon steel of indeterminate analysis and heat treatment you run a significant risk of damaging more of the face than you "repaired." There is a good as in reasonably low risk, method. I'm blanking on the name of the guys who's names grace the technique. It's a TBI thing. someone will chime in with it shortly. Thomas?

Please do NOT clamp it to a mill table and remove decades or useful life from the face! Many anvils have been ruined for use by pro machinists. The face plate is THIN removing any represents wasted useful life. Even a sander is overkill on the face.

Wire brush it if it's rusted and then beat HOT steel on it and she'll shine up nicely. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Gunther/Schuler

http://www.anvilmag.com/smith/anvilres.htm

Agreed with Frosty.  An anvil is not a mold or a die that needs to be perfectly flat, sharp edges and needle sharp horn end :) ... rather it is a rustic block, that needs to withstand the brute force of hammering. Round edges and dings and flaws on the face are not a problem.  

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Welcome aboard Karl. I always suggest reading this. READ THIS FIRST  It will help with getting the best out of the forum and stay off the moderators radar.:ph34r: I agree with the others, trying to restore/repair an anvil usually does more harm than good (ask me how I know).

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On 12/15/2019 at 3:41 PM, Frosty said:

How long have you been using this anvil and have the missing "small chunks(?)" interfered to the point of making it almost unusable?

I just acquired this anvil. Have never used it. Sorry if I offended anyone. New to the site and don't know my way around

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No offense taken, Karl. This forum has seen many well meaning folk take a damaged but perfectly usable anvil, and make it unusable. Welding and machining skills are great, but there is more to these things than filling a few divots and milling the whole thing flat. This has been discussed ad nauseum on a buncha threads. We want to make sure you have all the info you need in order to make and follow thru on the decision to repair or not. Unfortunately, anyone asking the questions like  you asked is akin to throwing rocks at a hornet's nest. I hope I speak for the gang when I say we weren't offended, and I hope you weren't, either. There is a lot of accumulated experience around here, and basically we want you to succeed. Again, pictures of your anvil would help, so we can give specific advise. Remember, this is supposed to be fun.

Steve

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Many of us have run into "when your only tools are a shaper, horizontal mill, surface grinder, vertical mill, etc; all problems look like stock removal is the answer problems"  Similarly with welding equipment.  Often people with no blacksmithing experience but other types of metalworking experience will want to use what they know already to try to "improve" an anvil they know little about. 

I had a friend who when he was young bought and anvil and paid to have the face milled smooth with sharp corners---and then found that the hardened face was *gone* and he had ruined his anvil. He carried it around for 20 years until he went to an anvil repair day when a fellow with industrial welding equipment AND blacksmithing knowledge used the Gunter/Schuler method to build a usable face on it---5 hours of welding/grinding! (The anvil I took to that repair day had damage from being abused by the maintenance crew at a mine; much less work needed to be done even though my anvil was twice as big as the other one.)

So like medicine: First; Do No Harm!

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  • 2 weeks later...
6 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

I just received an email from ABANA saying part of your collection will be on display at the 2020 conference in Saratoga NY June3-6. Way to go Josh, sure wish I could attend that one.

Yes, I will be hauling up lots of interesting iron, and will have my book on the whole story of Fisher anvils, for sale.  I have a lot of work to do in the next 5 months.  It will be interesting...

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